Even as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Hedrick Smith was navigating “the road ahead for American Democracy” during his i3 talk on Tuesday, even more Bozos were being added to the Trump Clown Car up ahead.
A once-respected doctor turned TV pill-shill was nominated to oversee Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act.
The empress of a studio wrestling empire was nominated as Secretary of Education.
And the hits keep on a coming.
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His name is Pehuenche and he will be in concert this Sunday, Nov. 17 at the Tres Fuentes hotel and as exciting a singer as the Veracruz native may be, there is an equally exciting story behind the concert.
San Miguel de Allende isn’t exactly on anyone’s music circuit – those well-traveled paths that bands and other performers follow from town to town – or at least it hasn’t been.
At least until now.
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Back in September, the San Miguel de Allende lecture series “i3: Ideas that Inform and Inspire” announced its new season and among the most-anticipated speakers is veteran journalist and author Hedrick Smith.
His speech, titled “The Road Ahead for American Democracy,” is set for Nov. 19.
Way back in September, the title seemed an anticipation of the celebration that would be democracy in action – a successful election during which the majority of the people would choose as their leader an intelligent, earnest, and compassionate woman over an aging and angry revenge-driven criminal.
That didn’t happen.
Continue readingThere is an old joke about two explorers who are captured by cannibals. One is a Californian and the other is a New Yorker.
The explorers sit at the bottom of a large vat filled with water. Natives run around collecting firewood and depositing it at the base. It is going to be a big fire. It is going to be a big feast.
The chief of the cannibals stands over the two explorers and admires their pale skins.
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2. He’s still in the race? How can half the people still think this guy is good for the country. … Lies! Lies! Lies! … Did you hear what he just called Kamala Harris?!? I think I’m going to be sick …
3. And the last voting booths are closing in 5 … 4 … 3 …
So sorry. It was either do this or go out of my freaking head.
Since ALL of my friends are supporters of democracy, decency, and Kamala Harris, I wish you a very happy Election Day.
PS: If you can think of some different captions, post them in the comments section below! Thanks for playing along in 2024!
The simplicity of it all is both beautiful and mind-boggling.
A little salt, some sugar, and some clean water.
Two American doctors came up with this formula in 1967 in what is today called Bangladesh and – over the objections of other doctors and health officials – began infusing patients suffering from dysentery, cholera, and other diarrhea-related diseases.
At the time, a major outbreak of cholera was plaguing the capital of Dhaka. Worldwide at that time, some five million children a year were dying from cholera and dysentery, according to the New York Times.
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We once lived in a house that had a 360-degree view of San Miguel de Allende from the rooftop.
We still live in the house but the view is mostly gone.
In its place is a three-story condo project that wraps around the two sides facing Centro, the Parroquia, and the sunrise. It would be oppressive were it not for the chiffon yellow paint job. Chiffon yellow tends to soothe.
At any rate, this picture is not about that.
This picture was taken many blocks away on the top floor of the Posada de Las Monjas hotel on Calle Canal. Twice a week I climb the Escher–like staircases to the top to take Pilates. The walk to the studio is almost as grueling as the class. But obviously worth it.
And I’m not just saying that because the instructor is my wife, Rose Alcantara.
This is the view from the studio.
On Monday , we were expecting a late-season shower. The clouds to the West looked promising. They apparently had business elsewhere. All we got were sprinkles.
And a spectacular view.
We were mystified.
One minute, Dr. Grace Lim is delivering her weekly health talk on Wednesday to the nearly 120 guests of So Others May Eat in the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcangel courtyard.
“Many of you only have each other,” she reminds the elderly San Miguelians, all over the age of 65. “You need to watch out for each other.”
A frail elderly woman reaches up and asks for the microphone and Dr. Lim hands it to her.
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“(His) gift for artifice notwithstanding, he’d spun such dense layers of fabrication that inevitably he lapsed into self-contradiction.” – “Fantasia for Piano” By Mark Singer, Sept. 10, 2007, New Yorker magazine.
When the end came, it was a mere shadow of the audacious and raucous life that led up to it.
How sad. Imagine a man who promiscuously craved attention his entire life dying alone in a cold and dark room in a cold and dark dacha in the midst of a most unforgiving Russian winter.
Or nearly alone. With him was the sullen old nurse who spoke little English and seemed to know more about boiling cabbage than ministering to a dying man. In her defense, boiled cabbage was valued more by her people than this corpulent and grotesque American who knew only how to complain.
“Everything,” she often told her husband as they ate dinner in the dacha kitchen. “There is nothing in this existence which is not out to make his life miserable. Just ask him. Jesus Christ did not suffer as much for all Mankind as this man thinks he suffers when the temperature drops just a few degrees.
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We had a discussion the other night about High Season. Specifically, how do you know when it begins?
Somebody suggested you know when you can’t get a table at a restaurant you’ve been walking into for the past five months. Someone else thought Dia de los Muertos was the line of demarcation. Perhaps it’s when you can get an Uber every day of the week.
I decided that today officially marks the beginning of the “busy season.”
And the marker is the Pro Musica classical music concert series.
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Musings, Magic, San Miguel and More 